7-18 CHOIR TOUR 2K15

REGINA! REGINA! REGINA!
Today we had our service project. It was very humid and warm out all day today. Our service project consisted of us cleaning out gutters, picking out weeds, painting a fence, grilling hotdogs for lunch, cleaning off driveways, and a lot more yard work. We were working on several different houses in one neighborhood. We split up to work on different houses, 3 abandoned ones, and 1 house with people living in it. Regina was one of the pastors that helped direct us on what to do during our project. She had bought one of the abandoned houses and was trying to fix it up so she could make it into a bed and breakfast

7-17 CHOIR TOUR 2K15

JIMMY'S DAY VIEW
Today our interim youth director, Jimmy Sweeden, decided to flaunt his talents around and have some fun at The Cobalt Center. He played a lot of classic songs on the piano for us and we all danced around him in a big circle. Before this we were able to go explore at Cobalt and learn and help people in need by doing projects; such as painting, making hats, writing letters to trafficked kids, donate money for fresh water wells in developing countries, and go on a walk for water to understand the struggle it is for an African woman to carry 40lbs of water everyday and walk an average of 3 miles a day just to get it. Later on in the day we went to lunch at the GM building and got to sit in and mess around with there cars on show there. When we all re-grouped we noticed miles had ripped his pants playing volleyball at Cobalt Stadium and decided to improvise by wearing a sweatshirt for pants. At the  big closing ceremony of the day at Ford field, a Motown group came out and played for us and a little boy sang amazingly for the closing song. We learned that building bridges unites us as People of God.

7-16 CHOIR TOUR 2K15

PL'S LAST STAND
Today we got on the road by 8:30. We stopped at a little breakfast restaurant on the way to Detroit. When we got there, we went to the Cobalt Stadium to check out some of the activities that were going on. We spotted a zip line, jumpies, and some other cool things. Some of us chose to paint murals of trees that are to be hung up around different areas in Detroit. We chose to finger paint our tree and it turned out very colorful and nice. About 12:30 our activity for the day started. We were put in a room with the Pacifica senate and the Southern California senate. During our little gathering we sang some songs, had communion, and met some new friends. The very last part of the gathering the ELCA leaders ordered for a little send off for PL since he is retiring next year. They called him up on the stage and it was a very powerful and emotional experience for PL and us. After the little gathering we got some dinner and headed down to the Ford field Stadium. We took the people mover down to the closing ceremony. Our closing ceremony consisted of a couple more motivational speakers and some inspirational singers. The last singer of the night got all of us up on our feet dancing. We were seated right next to the speakers so it was so loud you could feel the bass of the music pounding in your chest. On the bus ride back to the hotel we met some new friends from Palo Alto. They rode on our Ascension bus with us back to the hotel. When we got back it was late and we did devotions and PL said that we get to sleep  in later tomorrow morning so we are all happy and excited about that.

7-15 CHOIR TOUR 2K15

WELCOME TO DETROIT
Today was our big adventure to The Detroit ELCA Youth Gathering and one of the most amazing feeling of our trip thus far the feeling of sleeping on a cloud (Bed)! Today we final arrived in Troy after a 4 hour bus ride. We  went out to lunch at a fancy 3 story mall, after we got our rooms and unloaded the bus. When we arrived back at the hotel, we were pleased to be greeted by the Bergs, Sara and Maia. It is also Maia's birthday today so we all sung her a happy birthday on the bus ride down to Ford Field Stadium. When we first got to the stadium we were overwhelmed by the number of people there. 30,000 is a lot! We got floor seating and you could easily see us on the big screen in our screaming bright neon yellow shirts. During the opening ceremony we enjoyed listening to motivational speakers, and singers. We learned not to be a silent disciple, as well as having the ability to make a difference in the world, and that the world has been waiting for us to reach out.

P.S; sorry about not updating the blog the last 2 days, we tried to but the wifi connection was so bad that we couldn't.